Amplification of 50-ps optical pulses by simultaneous use of current drive and optical excitation in semiconductor optical amplifiers

The pulsed optical output of a 940-nm LD can be amplified using a current driven semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). The pulsed light from the 940-nm LD has a pulse width of 50 ps and a repetition rate of 50 MHz, and incident on the 500-mA current driven SOA. A CW light from a 905-nm LD incident on the SOA in colinear with the pulsed light. Due to two effects of current driven amplification and optically pumped amplification, the peak power of the pulsed light was increased up to 2W and the pulse contrast was improved by a factor of 20.